The New York Times :
The pandemic that has convulsed the world for more than two years is entering a “new phase,” and the rapid spread of the omicron variant offers “plausible hope” for a return to normalcy in the months ahead, the World Health Organization said in a statement released Monday.
Dr Hans Kluge, the director for the WHO’s European region, warned that it was too early for nations to drop their guard, but he said that between vaccination and natural immunity through infection, “omicron offers plausible hope for stabilization and normalisation.”
His comments echoed the optimism of other leading public health officials around the world, including Dr Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser for the coronavirus.
Fauci said Sunday that while there would be pain in the weeks ahead, especially as omicron moves through the unvaccinated, the hope was that the continued spread of omicron would not disrupt society to the same degree as other variants of the coronavirus have done over the past two years. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the WHO, said that it remained the collective responsibility of the world to end the pandemic.
“There are different scenarios for how the pandemic could play out and how the acute phase could end. But it’s dangerous to assume that Omicron will be the last variant or that we are in the endgame,” he said Monday at an executive board meeting of the global health organization “On the contrary, globally, the conditions are ideal for more variants to emerge.” Given how the virus has offered new surprises and challenges throughout the pandemic, Kluge also offered a mix of caution and optimism. “The pandemic is far from over, but I am hopeful we can end the emergency phase in 2022 and address other health threats that urgently require our attention,” Kluge wrote.
